Zero to Piano
by RileyTheWriteyDude
Summary: Piano /pēˈanō/ Slow, slowly, soft. How did Ariel become a soft spot in the Hawkins' Hearts? Find out in this book! What is this? Another book? Yes, this is another book. It'll give you an insight of what Jim and Ariel in the book "You're My Treasure" had that eventually strengthened their connection. Several events that occurred but were ever shared will be available in here.
1. Chapter 1

**What is this? Another book?**

 **Yes, this is another book. It'll give you an insight of what Jim and Ariel in the book "You're My Treasure" had that eventually strengthened their connection. I did mention that they had talked for weeks, and this book will showcase those meetings they've had.**

 **So, think of it like this, the first book (and the second one which is already up) as a movie. This book is a TV series.**

 **Get it?**

 **The book will merely contain six parts, but my mind might change. We'll see, you know. But I hope you enjoy this writing of mine. I am very aware of the state of the fandom, which is either non-existent or dead. But who cares?**

His boots scraped against the ground in rush, bringing the male to the stairs that connected the inn and the beach. Their secret meeting was always the reason why he'd always rush his way down to the beach. Besides, when it comes to a boy who's in love, there's no such thing as stopping for him.

Jim reached the beach with a loud _thump_ after having himself almost trip a step while descending. With the lighting provided by the sunset on the far west, he saw only the water ahead of him. No Ariel in sight.

"Alright… I'm early, as usual, I suppose."

The boy shrugged, and walked to line where the small waves would reach the sand. He removed his shoes and threw them away. His hand reached for the inside part of his leather jacket, checking if his possession was still with him. a smile grew on his face.

"I have 'em…"

Not long after that, a red head breached the surface just ahead of the boy. The red head's appearance widened that goofy smile on Jim's face.

"Good…" Ariel turned to the sunset, "evening, Jim."

"Evening. That's very formal of you," Jim said. The response earned a shrug from the female.

"A little bit of formality wouldn't hurt, don't you think?"

He nodded. "It wouldn't," Jim's hand snaked into his jacket. "Let's cut the fun part. Do you want to see the items I've brought to you?"

She nodded even more vigorously.

"Well, I'll grab out whatever comes into my grasp first," his hand went even deeper, and Jim sensed the sensation of a cloth. He pulled it out, and it was a piece of red cloth. Almost like a handkerchief. But then, Ariel wouldn't recognize the item's identity.

"What is that?" Ariel asked.

"It's a piece of cloth," his smile grew on only one end, so it wasn't really a smile. It was more of a smirk. Ariel saw the smirk.

 _What is that?"_ She repeated her question, emphasizing on every word now.

"Haha, calm down. This piece of cloth is not just any piece of cloth. It's a type of cloth that you'd find on boats that use solar power in order to fly. It absorbs the sunlight, and if it's still functional…" Jim stood up, and Ariel's eyes locked onto the piece of cloth. Those eyes of hers widened right away when they saw how brightly the cloth glowed.

The cloth absorbed the sunlight from the sunset, its energy spinning around inside the cloth with nowhere else to circulate. The behavior affected the cloth to vibrate a little.

Once it had collected enough sunlight, Jim hid the cloth away from the sunlight. He bent his knees down, showing the cloth closer to Ariel. Her eyes were filled with curiosity, although squinting due to the heat the cloth was radiating.

"Try grabbing it, it's a little warm, but it should be fine," Jim warned. With that, he gave the mermaid the solar cloth. Warmth welcomed the mermaid's delicate hands as they felt the smoothness of the cloth. Ariel was in an awe.

Jim waited for a response, but received none. He decided to break the ice. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Ariel nodded vigorously. "Yeah! It's…way cooler than 'pretty cool', I'd say."

The mermaid proceeded to see the object from multiple angles, spinning it vertically and horizontally to find something particularly interesting. she found nothing.

She mouthed 'words' that Jim didn't really follow, overwhelmed by the magic in her possession.

"How does it work?" She finally said.

The male smirked. "Well, there's a special material applied to the cloth that could be found in mines. There aren't many resources of it on this planet, so we import them from another planet. The material is called Solar. They seem to interact actively with sunlight when in contact. They create energy, and we can use that energy to power up machines, not just boats in general."

"Huh, not just boats? What else can the solar power?" The curious one asked.

"Washing machine, oven, stove, cars," and Jim continued listing machines powered by solar energy with his fingers. Little did he know, Ariel wasn't following what he was on about. He noticed the mermaid's puzzled look after he mentioned 'solar boat'.

"I know the boat one," Ariel giggled. "See them every day."

Jim scoffed. "Of course, it's the only one you get to see. You'll see what I mean, perhaps one day."

"Right, and I'll be seeing—whoops!" By accident, she lost grip of the cloth, and it fell into the water. However, no dramatic interaction was seen. Her logic was that something hot wouldn't go well together with something cool, like water and fire. Ariel expected the cloth to be not so waterproof, but the reality surprised her.

Ariel looked up to Jim. "It's waterproof?"

"Yep, so you can literally use it as a source of light underwater. When it's dimming, take it to a sunlight, and it will absorb it in no time," Jim explained. "Just make sure nobody sees it, its brightness might attract attention."

"Understood."

An awkward silence filled the air, Jim swore he felt the silence was deafening, even with the wind in the background. However, for Ariel, nothing was even close to 'awkward' at the moment. Her eyes were still locked onto the object.

"Now, onto the next one, shall we?" Jim spoke rather loudly.

The male dug his hand into the pocket of his jacket, and grabbed a round object. It was a compass, colored in metallic copper. But of course, Ariel didn't know what it was.

"Say hello to Mr. Compass."

"Compass?"

Ariel accepted the object when handed over after placing the solar cloth away. Right away, she examined the object. Like any other conventional compass, it had a needle with one end painted in red. On the rim, the letters "N" and "S" were seen, sitting across each other. The only element of the object Ariel 'understood' was the letter N and S across it, though she had no idea what they meant.

"It's a pretty compass," Ariel stated. Jim was expecting a question, which made him furrow a brow.

"It is. Wanna know what it's for?"

Her eyes rolled up to meet his, smiling slightly. "Is that even a question?"

Jim let out a scoff. "So, you see the needle? The red one points at north, and the other one points at south."

Ariel quickly mouthed an 'ohh'.

"So, north is… right behind you, while south is… right behind me! Easy, right?" Jim asked.

Ignoring the statement, Ariel shot a question, "I suppose if you're lost, somewhere in the wilderness, you can use this as a guide?"

"You're a quick learner. Yes, it can guide you home."

Once again, she mouthed another 'ooh'. Ariel rotated the object, and found it surprising that the needle remained at its position, not following the rotation around it. But then, she's a quick learner; the direction of north and south wouldn't change just because she rotated the compass.

"But," Jim broke the silence once again, and Ariel turned her attention to him once again. He never seemed to run out of things that could amuse the female.

"If you're lost in the wilderness," he pointed a finger up above, and almost like he 'hit' a switch, the sun on the far west was gone, and the night sky took over. "Up there… you might want to use this instead."

For the final time, Jim pulled out an object from his pocket. It was another round object, mimicking the compass in both size and color. But this time, it had a round green glass on the middle.

However, the night sky was much of a help for the mermaid to have a detail look on the object.

"It's too dark for me to see, what is it, Jim?" Ariel felt the surface of the object with a hand, which was the only thing she could do for now.

"Oh, here," Jim guided her hand to reach for the glass in the middle of the object. He placed a finger of hers on top of it.

"Press it."

So, she did. And immediately, she was taken aback in shock.

A projection of the galaxy illuminated right above the object, where numerous planets and stars were displayed. The planets were seen to be on the move, which was slow, but they were noticeable. That's how accurate the projector was. Even with the universe only colored in green by the projector, it was more than enough to make the mermaid's jaw drop. Jim could only smile at the look on her face. And his magic show was not over.

Jim scanned the map projection, and chose a planet with the tip of his finger. Once tapped, the projection zoomed onto the planet chosen by Jim. It was none other than Planet Montressor itself.

"That's where we are, Planet Montressor."

"Oh wow… I can't believe—" before she could even finish her sentence (though she was very much speechless), Jim zoomed in again into another planet. This time, it was Montressor Spaceport. The crescent planet. Ariel immediately recognized the shape of the odd planet.

"And that's the spaceport. Believe me or not, it's a giant civilization on an oddly shaped planet. But the people over there seem to enjoy living there," Jim explained. Having heard of his explanation, Ariel looked up to the crescent shaped planet on the night sky, then back to the projection, then back to the actual one, and over and over.

"The details are amazing!" Ariel said.

"Indeed!"

The session continued with Jim demonstrating the gestures to use whenever he wanted to zoom in, zoom out, move forward on the map, and so on. Ariel, being a quick learner, took over the job and explored the map by her own. She was feasting her eyes, and she was not going to stop anytime soon.

Time walked past like the wind, and brought the two to a point where Ariel rested her chin on her palm, still curling a smile on her face while gazing at the universe just in front of her.

"I want to see them… in the flesh," Ariel said.

Jim looked at her, unsure of what to say initially. But then, his instinct answered, "I'll take you up there, someday."


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you want to change the scenery? I know an island not far from here, perhaps you'll like it."

Jim shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"Leave those items here, no need to bring them," Ariel commanded. Her command left the male puzzled, as the items were the ones she was interested in the most. However, he did as she said.

"Which direction is the island?" Jim asked.

"You'll know soon enough."

With that, the mermaid grabbed the human by the wrist, and jumped into the water with him. Of course, the male was taken by surprise. Other than the fact that she did it out of the blue, swimming was not one of his skills.

Ariel's fins paddled through the water seamlessly, while Jim was desperately trying to keep up by paddling his feet. While panicking, he tried his best to keep his head above the water. It wasn't a vain effort, but Jim found himself swallowing some seawaters.

What seemed to be an eternity, which only lasted for around twenty seconds, the two reached an island filled with nothing but some palm trees. The other side of the island was visible if seen carefully through the trees, since it was a very small island.

Jim crawled his way to the dry sands, coughing out some water, and laid himself under the sun. Afterwards, he heard laughter.

"Hahaha… Oops?"

Jim looked down at the mermaid, smiling playfully.

"You will _never_ do that again," he giggled, "mermaid."

Ariel turned grumpy in a playful way. "Oh, really now, human? I don't see that happening anytime… soon."

He turned around to the content of the island behind him. "This island will keep me alive for a few weeks, I think."

"And I can make you _feel_ alive for a few minutes," Ariel snapped a finger. "If you'd let me teach you how to swim."

"You're telling me that swimming can be fun?" Jim fixed his hair, "I'm not sure if it's as fun as… you know, flying."

She found herself a little cornered with the conversation, not having something that could be used a great comeback. But then, a light bulb appeared.

"You can fly _if_ you have your solar surfer around. But to swim, you just need your feet! Come on, Jim! Sure, I'm a mermaid, but I can still teach you a thing or two about swimming. Besides… we swim, not walk."

Her explanation did convince the boy a little, and it was enough. "Fine, but later. Not today."

"Alright!"

Jim halted the conversation by squeezing multiple spots on his shirt to dry it. He didn't have the bravery to strip himself off in front of the mermaid, so he thought it'd be wiser just to do it while it's on. While doing so, he looked at the island, and spotted objects at the other side of the island. There were a bench, a small table, and a canopy.

"Oh no…" he turned around. "This is a private island, isn't it?"

"What do you mean by private island?" Ariel asked, surely not familiar with the term.

"It's an island owned by a certain person or group of people, we're not allowed to be here without authority."

"Oh, well, it wouldn't hurt if we borrow a piece of it for a while, right?" She gestured to the 'amount' of area that they used. Not seeing himself swimming again anytime soon, Jim forced himself to agree for now.

"Oh well, I guess you're right, although this is not the first time I've ever been here without authority," the boy smirked.

"You swam your way?"

"No, I landed here with my surfer. And since I was thirsty, I grabbed one of the coconuts and drank its water. Pure rotten luck, the owner of the island happened to be on the island as well, and I was caught in the act," Jim made body gestures of the activities in his story, enhancing the interest of the mermaid.

"What happens next?"

"Well, I ran as fast as I could. Next thing I knew, I was being shot at. The owner of the island couldn't chill, even after yelling at him on my way to calm down. But he didn't stop, so neither did I. I kept running, and reached my surfer that I parked…" Jim turned to his right to see the spot where he left his surfer in the story. "Right there. Once again, pure rotten luck, the engine wouldn't start right away. It took five or six kickstarts before I could escape."

"That's very close. The owner sounds crazy."

"I know, right? My surfer had a hole on its sail thanks to his mindless shooting. Ever since that moment, I swear I wouldn't step a foot on his island once again. But here I am, doing it again, with you," he pointed a finger at her.

"I have no foot, Jim. And I'm in the water," Ariel playfully smirked. "And I have no intention of taking you with me when the owner spots us."

"OH, you lil' sly evil," he splashed some water at her. "Mermaid."

Instead of avoiding the water, Ariel accepted it 'gracefully'. "Thank you."

He let out a big scoff. "Yeah, yeah. Have you ever had the same experience?"

Ariel pondered for a second. "The one thing I've done in the past but would never do again?"

"Mhm, anything?"

"… This one is pretty recent. Maybe a month or two ago. I was with Flounder, searching for men made," she thought of a word, and shrugged. "Souvenirs, I guess. I saw a shipwreck, but it was sat in a feeding ground of the sharks."

His brown eyes bulged already, very much already knowing where this was going. But he didn't interrupt her with questions. "But, I couldn't care less, though Flounder, of course, didn't agree to go. But he did anyway. So! We went to the wreck, and found… well not much, apart from the dinglehopper that I once showed you."

"Fork."

Ariel gave that smile that says 'yeah… but'. "Yeah… but it will always be dinglehopper for me."

"But don't use it to comb your hair again," he crossed his arms cockily.

"I won't, Sir Hawkins. OH, and a banded, bulbous snarfblatt."

He couldn't believe his ears initially, so he asked for repetition. "I'm sorry, what?"

Ariel bit her lips. Finding it hard to describe the item, she shook her hand as a gesture that said 'never mind'.

"I'll… show it to you one day."

"Okay, do continue."

"Anyway, I kept scouring around, until Flounder was found by a shark. Of course, we had to flee. But there was a close moment, where Flounder hit a mast and lost consciousness for a while and I nearly left my goodies behind because I dropped it."

Ariel placed her index and thumb fingers together, with only a gap that a bit of sand could fit. "I was this close to being eaten alive! Haha!"

Jim's reaction was completely the opposite of Ariel's added laugh. "So, you helped Flounder?"

"Yeah. And while doing so, we somehow managed to get the shark stuck on an anchor of the ship. So, that gave us plenty of time to flee. However, that wasn't the worst, though."

The boy couldn't fathom the fact that there's something worse than almost being eaten by a shark, as it was described in his expression that said 'what?!'

"When we were searching the ship, I actually forgot that I had a concert to attend. A musical concert. I was one of the singers, well, supposed to be one of the singers. But… I missed it. And of course, like any other father, he reprimanded me for my careless behavior."

Now that she had explained the reason why being eaten by a shark was not the worst thing, Jim mouthed an 'ohh' to acknowledge the story. He'd most likely prefer to face a shark rather than an angry Sarah Hawkins, though, in his mind, he found no differences between the two.

"Okay, I take it that you've stopped scouring around shipwrecks now?" Jim asked.

"Nope. I still do."

Jim sighed deeply. "Oh, whatever floats your boat, Ariel. Maybe I have to fix the question; what is the one thing you did in your past, but you wish you could undo it?"

"… It's the same question, isn't it—" she shook her head, "I guess, not really. But I'll think of one."

"You think of one, I'll grab a coconut for us," he stood on his feet and turned around to head towards the center of the island, where a small forest was lied.

"Thought you'd sworn you wouldn't do it again, Jim," she called.

"Oh to heck with it," he replied from a distance.

Seeing him disappearing into the small woods, she began her to process the archive in her brain. The question was rather similar, but she tried her best to not come up with the same answer. At one point, her eyebrows raised, as she came up with an answer. But, since the answer of the question could never be a positive one, Ariel curled a frown later.

A short while later, Jim returned with a gorgeous coconut, holed on the top to access its juice. He sat in front of the mermaid and showed off his discovery.

"Ladies first," he pushed the coconut to her.

"Thank you."

With a firm grip, she lifted the object and placed her lips on the opening. Her tongue was soon greeted by the fresh taste of the coconut water. She even hummed to the freshness of the taste. Jim found it odd that Ariel drank the coconut water right away without any hesitance.

"Oh, so good," she wiped her mouth with a hand, placing the coconut.

"You've had one before?" Jim asked, taking his sip of the coconut water.

"Yeah. I saw some humans doing it, and I 'borrowed' one from a nearby dock. It wasn't as good as this one, though."

"Define 'borrowed'."

"Jim, I didn't steal, okay? I returned it after I had a sip of it—several sips, but it wasn't much!"

"Haha… whatever, missy. You've thought of an answer?"

"Oh, yeah I have. It's um… my mother's death."

The answered shocked the male. He uncomfortably crossed his hands, pursing his lips for a short little while.

"O-Okay, I wouldn't touch that for now. Not that I do not want to listen to it, but I think it's best for you to… leave it for now. Okay?"

The mermaid bobbed her head. "I agree. But you know what, I think it's my turn to ask now."

He gave her a smile. "Shoot away."

"What's the one thing you want to experience before your life ends?" Ariel asked, laying her cheek on her fist. However, a thunderous sound sounded from afar. They both turned to the source of the noise, and spotted an old man, carrying a rifle while shooting it upwards.

"I'LL GET YA LIL' SCANDALOUS RATS!" He warned.

"Uhh… getting out of here alive?" Jim answered, turning to the mermaid.

"Sounds good."

With that, she took his hand and fled into the water.


End file.
